ABOUT
THE AUTHOR1977 born, Amit Gupta is sub-editor of Dainik Bhaskar, Chandigarh. He has written five books including three of them on childern and a novel in Hindi "Apna Apna Akash" and a play "Tottee Kariya". He has written hundreds of articles that have appeared in many newspapers and websites.[October 2001]

Once upon a time there lived a fox in forest. His name was Sonee and was a merchant by profession. Sonee remained outdoors most of the time due to his business dealing. He needed some efficient and hard working workers to assist him, but so far all the workers who came to him were foolish and lazy. Sonee thus found it hard to manage his business.

One day two pig brothers came to Sonee. They wanted jobs. Sone was wise. He just could not trust anybody who came to him looking for a job. So he decided to test the pig brothers before employing them. He said to them,

" Take this basket and pail...fill up this basket with water from the well, I will give you one hundred when I return in the evening."

Both the brothers were confused. As soon as Sonee left, the elder pig said to his brother,

" This merchant seems to be crazy. How can a basket hold water?"

"No, Sonee must have known that a basket can’t hold water and yet ha has asked us to do this. There must be a reason behind his saying." Said the younger pig.

But since both the brothers needed money badly, they began to draw out water from the well and pouring it into the basket. But the basket could not hold a single drop of water. Soon enough, the elder pig became exhausted.

" I can’t draw more water." He said to his younger brother. However the younger pig did not stop. He kept pouring water into the basket through out the day. At last all the water in the well was finished. Now the mud was getting mixed up with the water. The younger pig stopped working in the evening. The mud in the basket had become hard. Tired and exhausted, the younger pig looked at an object gleaming on the moss of mud. He looked at it carefully and noticed that it was a gold bracelet.

By this time, Sonee also reached there. The younger pig gave him the gold bracelet. Sonee’s eyes began to gleam at the sight of the bracelet.

" I had assigned this job to you only because of this bracelet. You have passed the test." Saying this, he gave a one hundred rupee note to the younger pig then he said to the elder one,

" You stopped drawing out water after a short while. Tell me why did you do this? Didn’t you feel well?"

" I am all right, but since I knew that it was useless to fill water in a basket, I stopped working." Replied the elder pig.

" Do you think, I am stupid? "There was not much water in the well. I knew that it could be taken out by the evening. I wanted to see whether you are hardworking. Dedicated and honest. Your younger brother has a sense of duty and dedication, which you lack. I am sorry to say that I can’t employ you." Sonee offered employment to the younger pig.

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"It is a very good story which teaches how honesty and dedication is rewarded.Good for the children to inculcate dedication." -- Wasim Najmul Huda, Karachi, Sind, Pakistan.